This invention relates to photographic cameras and more particularly, it concerns collapsible bellows type cameras having a novel support for batteries used to power electrically operated equipment associated with such cameras.
In large film format photographic cameras, focusing distance between the film plane and the camera objective lens is commonly accommodated by a collapsible, light-tight bellows extending between a back housing in which the film is carried and a front shutter housing which supports the lens and other exposure control apparatus such as a shutter, aperture stopping means and the like. The bellows, typically of truncated rectangular pyramidal configuration, is pleated to allow the shutter housing to be moved from an operative position spaced with respect to the back housing or collapsed against the back housing for storage or carrying.
Electrical equipment associated with bellows cameras, such as exposure control systems, receptacles for flash illumination devices as well as circuitry for such apparatus is usually supported within the shutter housing along with the aforementioned apparatus. Since such equipment requires one or more batteries as a souce of electric energy and because of shutter housing movement with respect to the camera back housing, it is desirable to mount the batteries within or adjacent to the shutter housing to avoid the need for a flexible conductor, for example, extending between the batteries and the equipment contained by the shutter housing. Because of the limited space available within the shutter housing, however, it is difficult to accommodate any but specialized small batteries of a specific configuration. Such specialized batteries are objectionable from the standpoint that they are often not readily available and are limited in their electrical storage capacity to such an extent that their use is restricted to metering circuitry requiring minimal current loads.
Another problem associated with the mounting of batteries in photographic cameras, particularly where the camera is automated in a manner to permit its use by the most inexperienced amateur, arises out of a need for informing such amateurs that a battery is required for satisfactory camera operation. It is not uncommon, for example, for a casual photographic amateur to use a camera only after long periods of nonuse exceeding the shelf life of the batteries in the camera. Unless such an amateur is reminded of the need for batteries, he is likely to discover such need only after several unsuccessful attempts at taking pictures. This situation is even more aggravated if upon discovering a need for new batteries, such a user finds that the battery required is available only at a then closed specialized supplier of photographic equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,146, issued May 12, 1970 to Patrick L. Finelli and Walter R. Lyon and commonly assigned with the present application, discloses an arrangement in a non-folding camera wherein batteries are disposed in a support hinged to an inside face of the exposure chamber to be disposed adjacent the camera's shutter housing. The support must be pivoted out of its battery retaining position to provide access needed for battery removal and/or replacement.